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About meArchives for September, 2007
Reformer without friends?
Abe had a reform agenda, he just had zero skill in actually communicating it to the public, or pushing it through his own party. This is a theme I’ve seen in some recent commentary. Clay Chandler, the Asia editor for Fortune, writes in this post about someone else who agrees:
As news of Abe’s abdication broke, Fortune International Editor Robert Friedman and I happened to meet with Heizo Takenaka, the economics professor who served as economic policy czar under Abe’s predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi. Takenaka, who withdrew from politics after Abe replaced Koizumi, speculated Abe had finally come to grips with the fact that he had no allies within the party. “I am sympathetic to him,” said Takenaka. “He is a reformer. But he was surrounded by enemies.” Takenaka fears Abe’s departure could be the death knell for economic reforms championed by Koizumi. “I’m quite concerned about the effect this could have on economic policy,” he said. “Politicians from the old guard are coming back. The policy tribes have returned. Interest groups pushing for more public spending see their chance.”
Now that the DPJ has found it can win elections by promising pork to the countryside, will the LDP jump back into that same game? The country’s productive urban residents might once again get the rubber end of the plunger as the resources flow into the nonperforming sinkholes of rural Japan.
Twitter: 2007-09-12
- Goign to watch TV: Abe announced he is quitting as PM #
- At home at last, enjoying the cool weather and an even cooler glass of beer. #
Powered by Twitter Tools.
LDP tug-of-war
With Abe out, the search for his follower begins. The Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election (which effectively decides who gets that kantei office) is set for September 19, with campaigning to begin five days earlier. A snap election that guarantees no surprise candidates, since the only viable ones are those whose support bases are already lined up.
The LDP may be about to take part in a strenuous tug-of-war match between its members who think that venturing into strange (to the party) seas of reform while Koizumi was at the helm robbed it of its traditional strength, and those who believe instead that Abe weakened the party by failing to follow that Koizumi course in a visible fashion. Aso Taro, whom many are calling the front-runner in the race this time around, appeared to come out on the former side when he was tapped to serve as LDP Secretary-General at the end of August, and was quoted as saying: 「自民党は一度、自民党をぶっ壊すという人を選んで、事実、ぶっ壊れた。あとの自民党をどう立て直すかが3人に与えられた役割だ」 (The LDP in the past chose a person who promised to smash the party, and it ended up broken. Our [the three politicians put in top party slots] task now is to find a way to put the party back together). Sounds to me like a rejection of the Koizumi course, although he may have meant otherwise. Politicians speak with forked tongue and all that.
Abe Shinzo to step down
It’s now being reported on the BBC, among other sites: Japan’s embattled PM ‘to resign’ . . . Abe is giving a press conference in about 20 minutes, where he’ll present his reasons for stepping down, but so far the NHK people have mentioned things like his inability to gain opposition support for extending the antiterrorism measures law. Seems like an odd reason for him to give, since he recently stated he would be stepping down if that bill to renew the “Indian Ocean gas station law” didn’t make it through, but who knows? Something to watch on TV in a little bit, if you’re in Japan.
Problem for me: This comes on the afternoon of the day when we have our evening editorial board meeting, and the board members are likely to demand the chance to rewrite all their articles on Abe, the upper house election results, and so on. Even though we’re already finished with layout, and have no time to do massive edits before we go to the printers. C’mon guys, this magazine comes out once every two months, you shouldn’t expect to be timely.
Update:
Just watched the press conference. Abe: “We suffered a big defeat in the July election, but I felt that continuing along the path of reform/breaking free of the postwar regime was all-important. It’s also important for Japan to continue supporting the fight against terrorism. Today I asked for a face-to-face meeting with Ozawa to talk about that, but he wouldn’t meet with me, so I’m stepping down.”
The press questions included some asking why this timing was proper, when he hadn’t stepped down after the upper house drubbing. No very clear answer to be had there. His most honest answer came in response to perhaps the second question, when he reiterated the important tasks his administration is dedicated to seeing through and rather bluntly said “but none of this is going to get done while I’m around.”
Interesting times. I wonder if Uno Sosuke is happy to have some company in the “failed, short administration” club. I also wonder how Wakabayashi Masatoshi feels at having served as ag minister—twice!—for just a few weeks each time. Third, I wonder how the LDP goes about choosing its next president from here on out. Do the party bigwigs just get together and tap someone? Fukuda? Koizumi, again?
A few other posts on this are at Trans-Pacific Radio, Ampontan, Observing Japan, and Japan Probe. The last page names Aso Taro as the pol most likely to step into the PM’s office, but I’m not so sure about that one. We’ll see.
Now I want an iFung
Seen on the packaging for a fake iPhone, as reported by Bloomberg.com:
Waring. It will break the law without authorized by Apple Inc., if you use “iPhone” logo on any electronic pruducts.
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